BEIRUT: A series of attacks by Hezbollah on Friday targeted multiple Israeli military sites with heavy Burkan missiles and suicide drones.
The strikes followed Israeli raids on Aitaroun, Houla, and the pro-Hezbollah border village of Maroun Al-Ras overnight on Thursday and into the early hours.
As aerial attacks on Lebanese targets continued, two Hezbollah members were killed. A military drone in Naqoura deliberately struck an ambulance, killing a paramedic and injuring one other person.
While ambulances and ambulatory units in Odaisseh, Blida, and Hanin have previously been targeted by artillery shelling, this is the first time an Israeli drone has targeted a medical vehicle.
In separate statements, Hezbollah said it struck the Branit barracks — headquarters of the Israeli army’s 91st division — with heavy Burkan missiles, “hitting it directly and destroying part of it.”
The group also targeted “the Baghdadi outpost with heavy Burkan missiles, hitting it directly,” as well as “a building used by the enemy’s soldiers in the Al-Manara settlement.”
Hezbollah said it also attacked Iron Dome launchpads in the Al-Zaoura bunker and a building used by Israeli soldiers in the Shomera settlement.
The two Hezbollah members who died were named as Samer Kamel Yassin, aged 42, and 54-year-old Hussein Mohammed Atwi, both from Houla.
Israeli media said two missiles landed in western Galilee without triggering sirens and claimed a building in Metula was hit when an anti-armor missile launched from Lebanon landed in the area.
Sirens sounded in several northern settlements warning of possible drone infiltration. The explosion of air interception rockets was heard over the Marjayoun Valley in southern Lebanon and Israel launched shells toward Al-Wazzani and raided Naqoura.
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X: “Israeli military raids targeted four Hezbollah military buildings in Aitaroun and Markaba in southern Lebanon.”
The Israeli airstrikes, which have been ongoing for 237 days, have caused extensive damage to homes and buildings in the border towns, leaving the areas 90 percent uninhabited.
The number of displaced people who have relocated to Beirut’s southern suburbs has reached around 100,000.
The Cabinet has approved $1 million (93 billion Lebanese pounds) in compensation for civilian victims and aid for the displaced. However, the decision has sparked political protests.
Critics have condemned the government for spending so much public money on compensation for a war the Lebanese people did not choose while it struggles to pay public sector and military salaries.
They said Hezbollah “decided on its own to launch its rockets at Israel on Oct. 8 from the south, dragging Lebanon into the war.”
Objections came from the head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, the head of the Lebanese Kataeb Party, MP Sami Gemayel, MP Nadim Gemayel, and other figures.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has repeatedly stated that Lebanon, suffering from an economic crisis, cannot bear the burdens of the southern war.
Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri expressed his deep concern weeks ago about “the extent of the destruction along the southern border, with initial estimates indicating massive losses.”
He noted: “The conditions for rebuilding what was destroyed by the Israeli attacks accompanying the 2006 war may not be the same today.”
On Thursday, Amos Hochstein, senior adviser for energy and investment to the US president, said in an interview with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that he did not expect everlasting peace between Hezbollah and Israel.
“A land border agreement between Israel and Lebanon implemented in phases, by removing some of the motivations for conflict, and establishing recognized borders for the first time between the two countries, could dampen the simmering and deadly conflict between the two countries,” he said.
Ambulance strike kills paramedic in southern Lebanon
https://arab.news/287x3
Ambulance strike kills paramedic in southern Lebanon
- Critics rap Mikati government for spending $1 million of public money on war compensation
- Hezbollah launches attacks with Burkan rockets, assault drones hit targets
Trump says he thinks Israel should ‘hit’ Iran nuclear facilities
- “When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump said
WASHINGTON: Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump said Friday he believes Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to the Islamic republic’s recent missile barrage.
The former president, speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina, referred to a question posed to Democratic President Joe Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
“They asked him, what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran? And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump told a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major US military base.
Biden was asked on Wednesday whether he would support strikes against Iranian nuclear sites and the US president told reporters: “The answer is no.”
“I think he’s got that one wrong,” Trump said Friday, in response to a participant’s question about the issue. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit? I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons,” he said.
“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump added.
“If they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it. But we’ll find out whatever their plans are.”
Biden on Wednesday expressed his opposition to such strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, in response to the firing of nearly 200 Iranian missiles toward Israel.
“We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do,” he said, adding that all G7 members agree Israel has “a right to respond, but they should respond in proportion.”
Trump, locked in a tooth-and-nail presidential election battle with US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has spoken little about the recent escalation in tensions in the Middle East.
He issued a scathing statement this week, holding Biden and Harris responsible for the crisis.
American killed in Lebanon was a US citizen, State Dept says
- State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen
WASHINGTON: An American killed in Lebanon this week was a US citizen, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday, adding that Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, according to his daughter, a friend and the US congresswoman representing his district.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen.
“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a US citizen,” the spokesperson said.
“As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy.”
Israel says it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, who have been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began a year ago.
Its recent military campaign in Lebanon has killed hundreds and wounded thousands, according to the Lebanese government, which has not said how many of the casualties were civilians versus Hezbollah members. The Israeli bombardment has also driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes.
The governor of Michigan has urged the US government to do more to rescue Americans stuck in Lebanon, many of them from Michigan, during Israel’s military offensive in the country.
Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote
- The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years
TUNIS: Hundreds of Tunisians marched in the capital on Friday, escalating protests against President Kais Saied, two days before what they say is an unfair presidential vote in which Saied has removed most other candidates to remain in power.
Protesters, who held up banners reading “Farce elections” and “Freedoms, not a lifelong presidency,” marched to Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Tunis and a focus point in 2011 protests that toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Political tensions in the North African country have risen since an electoral commission named by Saied disqualified three other prominent candidates, and an independent court has been stripped of authority to adjudicate on election disputes by the parliament.
The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years.
He has been in jail since he was arrested a month ago on charges of forging electoral documents.
Saied now faces just two rival candidates, Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, who was a former Saied ally and then turned critic.
Protesters chanted slogans against Saied: “The people want the fall of the regime” and Dictator Saied ... your turn has come.”
“Tunisians are not accustomed to such an election. In 2011, 2014 and 2019 they expressed their opinions freely, but this election does not allow them the right to choose their destiny,” said Zied Ghanney, an opposition figure.
Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary
- “The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government
- A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation
CAIRO: The Islamist group Hamas rejected what it called “a false narrative and fabricated story” about a Yazidi woman Israel said was freed in Gaza in a secret operation involving Israel, the United States and Iraq.
The woman, whom Israeli officials have said was taken captive when she was 11 years old and sold to a Hamas member, had never been abducted or sold, and was able to leave Gaza with the knowledge of the Hamas authorities, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Friday.
It said the 25-year old woman, identified as Fawzia Sido, was married to a Palestinian who fought alongside the Syrian opposition forces before he was killed. She later moved to live with his mother in Turkiye before traveling to Egypt, where she continued to live with her mother-in-law and later crossed into Gaza legally.
Years after she moved to live in Gaza, she married her husband’s brother before he was killed during the ongoing Israeli military offensive, Hamas said.
“She requested to contact her family because she felt increasingly unsafe in Gaza amid the intense bombing and brutal attacks by the Israeli occupation. She asked for evacuation, especially after her husband was martyred,” the Gaza government media office said.
“The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government. The occupation did not ‘rescue’ her, as falsely claimed in its statement aimed at misleading public opinion,” it added.
Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment on Thursday, with Iraqi officials saying she was resting after having been reunited with her family in northern Iraq.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had coordinated with the US Embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors” in the operation to free Sido.
It said in a statement her captor had been killed during the Gaza war, presumably by an Israeli strike, and she then fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip.
“In a complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” it said.
A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation.
She was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several attempts that failed due to the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, told Reuters on Thursday.
Iraq and Israel do not have any diplomatic ties.
“The narrative the occupation attempted to promote is entirely false. The woman traveled to Gaza through multiple airports and official border crossings,” the Hamas statement said.
“How could she pass through all these checkpoints without security noticing, only for the occupation to later claim she was kidnapped?” it added.
Egypt’s plan to save some dough: cut the wheat in bread
- But bakers, millers and consumers fear the product will smell and taste different
RIYADH: Egypt plans to save millions of dollars in import costs by replacing a fifth of the wheatflour in the nation’s bread with cheaper ingredients such as corn or sorghum, industry sources said on Friday.
But bakers and millers reacted with anger when the plan was put to them by the Supply Ministry, and consumers fear their bread will taste different. “The change could be unpopular, producing bread with a different texture and smell,” said Hesham Soliman, a trader in Cairo.
Bakeries oppose the plan because coarser flour requires lengthier baking and would increase labor costs. Mills are also opposed because they are paid based on how much wheat they process, which would be reduced.
Egypt has tried wheat substitution to reduce imports before. Corn was used for several years two decades ago before campaigning by industry groups pushed the government to abandon it.
In another money-saving move, the government raised the price of subsidised bread this year for the first time in decades.
Egypt needs about 8.25 million tonnes of wheat a year to make subsidised bread available to more than 70 million people. It is one of the world’s largest wheat importers, mostly from Russia, at a cost of more than $2 billion a year.
